Between You, Me and Tea
by itsahaiilstorm
Summary: Five years after the war ended. Hermione is finally breaking& what happens when a certain blonde decides to apologize for all of the cruel things he's done? What happens when she learns the truth behind it all? Hermione/Draco One-Shot. No slash.


Five years after the war ended. Five long years of sorrow, repairing and trying to figure out just what normal was. For Harry, Ron and Hermione, it was a whole new world. A world without fear, without worry, without school...

And it drove Hermione crazy. It was always the same schedule at Hogwarts. Get up, go to breakfast, classes, library, homework, eat, study, bed. And now, she had no arrows telling her which direction to go.

Except Ron. He always knew where she belonged. She may have been the brightest witch of her age, but he knew when it came to her. Whenever she was unsure, or scared, he would wrap his arms around her and show her that everything would be okay. Ron was her fiance after all. He'd tell her exactly what she needed to hear. If she forgot, he brought her back onto the right path.

But that was about to change.

It was just another day; sunny, but cold with the blistering winter breeze of London. Hermione, Harry and Ron had left for work already. All three were together at the Ministry. After kissing Ron goodbye, he and Harry made their way to the Auror Department. Hermione worked for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, before switching to be one of the heads of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

All her life, thats what she wanted. She wanted to be the best. Perfect NEWT scores, top of her class, and she wanted the boy. She had it all. But now, reality had caught up with Hermione. Her secretaries were annoying, she was running on muggle coffee and 4 hours asleep each day, and Ron was barely ever home.

And Hermione would never admit it, but all of this work and stress...she couldn't handle it.

"Mary, I'm going down to grab some tea would you like me to bring you some?" Hermione asked her secretary politely. Mary looked up from her paperwork and glanced quizzically at her boss.

"You sure you're alright, boss?" Mary asked, "I can go down to get you-"

"No please Mary, I'll do it."

"Well no thank you, Ms. Granger. 'M alright."

Hermione nodded her head and exited her office. It was sufficiently cooler in the corridors of their atrium even though Hermione made sure it was cold in her offices at all time. The headache that had been pounding her brain all morning was not getting any better, and Hermione thought to leave early. She could never do that. She's never missed one day of work.

Hermione took the longest route possible down to the Ministry's food hall. She could have simply conjured up some tea in her office, but she was in dire need of some down time. Hermione's headache skyrocketed and closing her eyes in pain was all she could do from screaming out. She wasn't paying attention, and walked straight into the person walking in front of her.

"Merlin! Oh gosh-I'm so sorry." Hermione apologized as she waved her wand and she gathered all of the man's papers. "I didn't watch where-" The young man turned around. He had pale skin, gray eyes, and white blonde hair.

Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy stared at one another. But there was something different in the way his eyes scanned her figure; in admiration-with liking? They weren't glaring at each other, he wasn't complaining he had touched such filthy blood, but he was smiling.

"It's alright Ms. Granger." Draco replied with a crooked grin. Hermione had forgotten what a charming smile he had for he rarely flashed it at her. "Or is it Weasley now?" Hermione's jaw was on the verge of dropping to the ground, but she tried to compose herself.

"Still Granger." Hermione replied with a small smile, unsure how to answer. She thought mentioning Ron would bring back a slew of bad memories and insults. "Soon to be Weasley, though."

Something sparkled in Draco's gray eyes and as he turned to leave, Hermione found herself wanting to talk to him some more.

"Mr. Malfoy!" Hermione called and Draco chuckled.

"Hermione, I think after seven years of schooling together you can call me Draco, yeah?" He said humorously. Hermione didn't know what to say. Not only had Draco swapped personalities in a few years, but he actually spoke her name.

"Well Draco, I wasn't aware that our years of school together were enjoyable enough to be on a first name basis, yeah?" Hermione mimicked him. A light pink flushed Draco's pink cheeks as he grinned once more at her. "I was just heading down to get some tea, would you care to join me?" Hermione found herself asking. Her headache completely forgotten.

"I think I have some time to spare."

* * *

><p>Hermione couldn't believe what was happening; she was having tea with Draco Malfoy. And she was actually...enjoying herself. Their conversation started off casually-her asking where he worked in the Ministry. The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. He had told her how he had bought his own flat straight out of Hogwarts to escape his father-his mother never encouraged the Dark Arts further. Draco had a girlfriend whom he quite wasn't ready for marriage with yet as they had only been dating for a bit of time.<p>

She had told him about her start at the Ministry-how she had changed jobs not too long ago. How the trio had fared after the war, and how she and Ron had bought their own flat when they became engaged. How the stress was really getting to her at work, but her job was nearly everything to her.

Hermione was laughing as the two reminisced about their Hogwarts years.

"You know, I don't think I'll quite ever get over when you punched me in third year." Draco snickered as he poured more tea into his glass. Hermione snorted, and nodded her head as she paused to sip her drink.

She didn't even notice the headache that had disappeared.

"How could I not?" Hermione answered with a smile, "It was one of the few times I rarely stepped out of line." There was a silence that passed between them-no laughing, not talking. It was just the sound of his deep breathing and her tapping her nail on the side of her glass mug.

"I was always out of line." Draco murmured so quietly Hermione almost didn't hear him.

"Draco-"

"Hermione, please. Calling you those names-I can't even bring myself to think about it. I can't believe I would ever s-say you had filthy blood or-"

"Please, Draco." Hermione begged. She didn't want him to continue, but not because she didn't want to hear the word. But because she could see how it pained him now, and why need the reminder? She already had the word _Mudblood_ carved into her arm-and he had witnessed that.

"Merlin, I'm sorry for everything I did. It was so wrong and I regret it. I wish I could just go back in time to fix it all."

"We've all made mistakes."

Draco looked up at her for the briefest moment before turning his gaze back onto the table designs.

"Just tell me one thing." Hermione stated gently, not wanting to upset him. He didn't look up at her, but nodded his head slightly. "Why'd you do it? If you regret choosing...that side, why?"

Draco didn't answer for a few moments; probably to ponder his thoughts. However, Hermione watched him. She knew he had his answer, and she knew he was debating whether to tell her or not. She was debating whether or not she wanted even know why.

"I did it for you."

"Wh-What?"

"I did it... for you." Draco said and looked up at her. And Hermione was surprised to see a smile on his face. "You were Harry Potter's best friend. The Boy Who Lived. The boy who defeated the Dark Lord. You were so close to You-Know-Who's target-he could've gotten you at any time.

I had to make sure...to make sure that you were safe. I had to see that he wouldn't attack you in order to get to Harry. Of course, if his mind was set, there would've been no stopping him. It was just Harry he wanted, but I had to make sure he wasn't going to attack you, too."

Hermione stared open mouthed at Draco. All of these years she thought he was a Death Eater for himself-to continue the family tradition. At first, she couldn't believe him. Draco Malfoy, the boy who teased her whenever she could, joined the Death Eaters to protect her?

"Draco, I-"

"And don't get me wrong, Hermione. I was-and am- responsible for my own actions. I did join the Death Eaters for my family, because it was how I was raised. But the things the Dark Lord would say scared me; I didn't want to be a killer, and I had ulterior motives as time passed."

"Thank you, Draco."

Draco looked quizzically at her.

"Are you mad?" Draco asked, which caused a round of giggles from Hermione.

"No, I understand." Hermione said and reached across the table to where his hand lay motionless next to his mug. She put her small hand on top of his, to find that he was quite cold. "I do, and I thank you for that. And you're a great wizard Draco, you really are.

You saw what was good when it was a bad time for you, and you chose good. I know you didn't mean all of those things, and I forgive you."

Draco grinned and there eyes met; gray with brown.

"Can we just... keep this conversation between us?" He asked calmly.

"Wouldn't share it for the world." Hermione answered and she watched him breathe a sigh of relief.

Hermione's hand still rested on his as they continued to sit there in silence. Another moment passed before Hermione felt Draco tug his hand out from under her. She was about to ask what was wrong, when she realized he was just checking his watch. A look of panic masked his handsome face and he stood quickly.

"Oh, shit, Hermione I'll be late to the office if I don't hurry."

"Oh Merlin, go, I'll clean everything up." She answered as he grabbed his cloak and bag off of the ground. Hermione wasn't paying attention as he departed and she nearly missed saying goodbye.

They might've actually began to become friends.

Hermione turned swiftly and called after him. A number of people turned in her direction to see who shouted, but quickly dismissed it. To her relief he hadn't gone far, and he immediately turned back around.

"Maybe we should do this again sometime? How about every Wednesday?" She offered with a smile and a shrug of her shoulders.

Draco's smile faltered as he continued to stare at the woman in front of him; thinking about his answer.

"Won't Ron be mad?"

Hermione shook her head, as she grabbed her own things off of the table.

"It's just tea." She replied. Draco grinned widely and nodded his head.

"Right; just tea."


End file.
